Monday, 30 June 2008

Fear not my my gently poached poissons! I am still here, a bubbling and smouldering pot of sarcasm brimming over with the edge with a sprinkling of contempt for the Industry.

I have recently been on sabatical in the Outer Hebrides, foraging for flora and fauna on an exciting adventure/ramble type course (just in case Gordon Brown does carry on as Prime Minister and we end up having to eat our own garbage and Spit-roasting urban foxes to get some form of nutrients). I have been learning about the different types of poisonous mushrooms, how many different meals you can make from just one squirrel and how it can be possible to marry your Uncles' Sons' Daughters' Daughter without anyone finding out that it is actually a sheep called Doris!

I will be back on Sunday with another look at the 'Death' of an Industry as it cowers beneath its bedsheets, gripping its pillow and waiting for the rude awakening it has been expecting......involvement from the Government!

The First 'Three City, Three Michelin Starred' Chef

Chef Alain Ducasse

Alain Ducasse (born 13 September 1956) is a Monégasque chef. He formerly held French nationality. He operates a number of restaurants including Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester which holds three stars (the top ranking) in the Michelin Guide.

Ducasse was born on a farm in Castel-Sarrazin in southwestern France. In 1972, when he was sixteen, Ducasse began an apprenticeship at the Pavillon Landais restaurant in Soustons and at theBordeaux hotel school. After this apprenticeship, he began work at Michel Guérard’s restaurant in Eugénie-les-Bains while also working for Gaston Lenôtre during the summer months. In 1977, Ducasse started working as an assistant at Moulin de Mougins under legendary chef Roger Vergé, creator of Cuisine du Soleil, and learned the Provençal cooking methods for which he was later known.

Ducasse's first position as chef came in 1980 when he took over the kitchens at L’amandier in Eugène Mougin. One year later, he assumed the position of head chef at La Terrasse in the Hôtel Juana in Juan-les-Pins. In 1984, he was awarded two stars in the Michelin Red Guide. In that same year, Ducasse was the only survivor of a Learjet crash that nearly took his life.

In 1986, Ducasse was offered the Chef position at the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, with management including the hotel's Le Louis XV. After assuring himself that the Hotel's other restaurant operations were operating well, Ducasse continued to run management.

In 1988, Ducasse expanded beyond the restaurant industry and opened La Bastide de Moustiers, a twelve-bedroom country inn in Provence and he began attaining financial interests in other Provence hotels. On 12 August 1996, the Alain Ducasse restaurant opened in Le Parc – Sofitel Demeure Hôtels in the XVIe arrondissement (16th district) of Paris, France. The Red Guide awarded the restaurant three stars just eight months after opening.

Ducasse came to the United States and in June 2000 opened the Alain Ducasse restaurant in New York City's Essex House Hotel at 160 Central Park South, receiving the Red Guide's three stars in December 2005, in the first Red Guide for NYC. That restaurant closed in 2007. In early 2008, Ducasse opened Adour, at the St. Regis Hotel on 16th and K Street in Washington, DC, and has also opened a more casual Bistro Benoit New York, at 60 West 55th Street.

Ducasse became the first chef to own restaurants carrying three Michelin Stars in three cities. The New York restaurant was dropped from the 2007 Michelin Guide because the restaurant was scheduled to close. Ducasse has become known through his writing and influences. Ducasse is also the only chef to hold 19 Michelin stars throughout his career (Masterchef 2010)

Ducasse was a French citizen by birth. However, on 17 June 2008, he became a naturalized citizen of Monaco. Since Monegasque nationality law does not allow dual citizenship, he immediately lost his French citizenship as a result. He chose Monegasque citizenship in order to take advantage of the principality's very low tax rates.

Alain Ducasse's restaurants, cooking schools, cookbooks, and consulting activities had revenues of $15.9 million in 2002. Since that time, Ducasse has been expanding his reach. Alain Ducasse has also opened a cooking school for the general public in Paris and another for chefs (ADF), which also works for the European Space Agency to develop astronaut meals to be taken into space. Ducasse has also authored numerous books, with the most famous being Alain Ducasse Culinary Encyclopaedia.